The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-05-26
VALUE OF REFUSE

VALUE OF REFUSE
CASH COINED BY THE DUsTMEN
OF NEW YORK CITY.
The Work at the Street Cleaning Dumps.
How It Is Done-Nhat Becomes of the
Days Collection-strango Finds somo-
times Made.
Before the scows Of the street cleaning
department are sent to sea with their car
goes Of street sweepings, ashes, garbage
and refuse of every description, it is neces-
sary to distribute this mass Of unsavory
material so that the scow will float evenly,
and not dump the load, together with the
Italians who are employed to shovel the
refuse, into the water, before the feet
reaches the boundary line within which
the sanitary laws forbid the dumping Of
any material. The contractor who does
this work is q broad faced, good looking
Italian named Cicerelli, who, when the
contract was put up at auction, astonished
all his competitors and the city authors
ties as well by bidding 1915 per week for
the privilege Of sorting over this material.
The contractor has the right to retain
and sell anything Of value that may be
brought to the docks when the scows are
loaded, and an Italian will recognize q
value in refuse material which would be
ota6 h1r nf nfhar
nationality. There are sixteen docks along
the water front of the North and East
rivers where the collections Of refuse are
loaded upon the scows. Cicerellt sublets
the privilege of sorting this waste at some
of these docks to one or two of his friends.
The men who do the actual work Of
strim1ning'' the scows are almost exclu-
sively Italians Of the lowest and most un-
Intelligent class. They are filthy and
dirty in the extreme, and the clothes worn
BY them are In O great measure cast of
garments, found In the refuse as it is
searched over and distributed properly in
the scows by them. These men are paid
small wages by the contractor or sub
contractor, and are supposed to turn over
to them all material on which itis possible
to realize any money. Many small mat
ters, however, fall to their lot in the
course Of work, and whatever can bo Sc
creted or slowed away and taken home
does not 60 into the general harvest of the
'sboss.n -
The days collection of salvage goods is
stored on or near the wharf until 1t is dis
posed Of ito some speculator. OLD tin
cans, old shoes, broken umbrellas, bones,
clothing coal and other refuse is carefully
laid aside to await a purchaser. This
material is generally sold in bulk to regu.
lar customers, who dispose Of their wares
to the best advantage. The bones are
carefully cleaned and sold to sugar re-
flners, who make them into the bone
black used for clarifying sugar, Bones OF
larger size are sold to manufacturers OF
cutlery, who use them In making handles
for razors and knives. The tin cans, bat
tered and bruised out Of oil resemblance
of the attractive form they have when
they stand in rows on the shelves of the
grocery stores are sold to buttonmakers.
They are put In q furnace, the iron Is
melted out, and then the tin plate Is rolled
together and is run beneath heavy dies,
which punch out the circular bits Of metal
used on the back of cloth covered buttons.
The old clothes, such as are not appro-
priated by the workers in the harvest
field, are sold to the rag merchats. In
the summer time it is customary to put
these collections of rags and old clothing
in d big wooden cage, such as is used fo1
the drowning of stray dogs which have
not been reclaimed from the pound, and
to submerge it in the river twenty-four
hours before the clothes are sorted and
sold. The broken umbrellas are sold tc
perambulating peddlers, who use the ribs
and sticks in making old umbrellas s'as
good as new ~
Occasionally articles Of considerable
value and even money are found by the
trimmers. It may seem impossible that
such fragile article as fine porce-
laine vase could survive the vicissitudes
Of q journey through an ash barrel, be
jolted over the rough payements of this
city In springless cart, be dumped from
the cart q distance Of ten or fifteen feet
into scow, and yet escape injury, but the
writer was shown not long since hand.
some cream colored vase, about three
inches high, on the side Of which was
painted spray Of forget-me-nots, which
had been dug out from among the rub
bish on one Of the scows of the depart
ment
Very frequently the men find silver
spoons and forks while sorting over this
refuse. These they sell to second hand
dealers in silver, but sometimes they keep
them for their own use. There Is one
italian working on one Of the dumps on
the east side Of the city who lives with his
family, consisting of a wife and eight
children, In two rooms In a rear tenement
in the "Bend" In Mulberry street, who hos
his table set with silver forks and spoons.
He has collected fifteen spoons and eleven
forks, all Of different patterns. These arti.
cles get into the garbage pail by tho care.
lessness of servants, and even the rag
pickers avoid these pails, and will not
search through them for articles Of value.
Every day some one on every dump in the
city will find one or more coins. These
never reach the contractors, but are
pocketed by the flnders.-New York Post.